If you have a mobile device, chances are good that you spend a lot of time hunched over like a vulture, picking at scraps of information. Adults and children alike have this question-mark posture.
Text neck describes the condition of neck pain from the head being pushed forward and craning down. This posture can affect your heart, digestive system, jaw, shoulders and back.
This position puts ten pounds of pressure per inch on your neck. With a six-inch neck that’s 60 pounds of pressure you’re dumping on your body.
Standing with good alignment is possible for anyone. Lie down to learn how your body should be aligned. Learn to get in touch with your body and your breath. Relax your body so it settles into the support of the surface below you. Move to standing. Relax the backs of your knees, roll the shoulders back and tap the top of your head. Relax both hands. Consider the crown of your head (where you were tapping) as having a magnet pointed toward the sky.
You can also assess your posture by standing against the wall and seeing what touches the wall. Does the back of your head touch? Is your spine curved?
You can heal the texting damage with yoga. Yoga is about reconnecting with who you are inside and with your physical body. You don’t have to bend yourself into a pretzel to do yoga.
Strengthen your core and improve your posture by sitting or standing tall. Rest your hand just below your belly button. Find your breath. Feel your belly fill and soften as you inhale. Engage your abdominal muscles on the inhale. You can sing on the exhale in the shower or in the car.
Our bodies have wear patterns like a worn pair of shoes. If you want to have good posture you have to make it a regular habit. Improve your body’s wear pattern.
How can you mindfully text? Be aware of your posture. Adapt the screen to your body. Lift your device so it’s in your line of sight. Get an editor’s desk or slanted stand so your screen or reading material is at a helpful angle. You can use a voice-to-type feature to help your posture. There’s no need to adapt your body to the screen. Make your environment work for you.
Listen in as yoga expert Carol Krucoff shares how you can combat text neck and heal your body with yoga.
Selected Podcast
Ease Text Neck & Heal Your Body
Featuring:
Carol Krucoff, E-RYT, is a yoga teacher at Duke Integrative Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, where she specializes in therapeutic applications of yoga for people with health challenges and co-directs the Therapeutic Yoga for Seniors teacher training, designed to help yoga instructors work safely and effectively with older adults.
An award-winning health journalist, Carol served as founding editor of the Washington Post’s Health Section and her articles have appeared in numerous national publications including the New York Times, Reader’s Digest and Yoga Journal. She is author of several books including Yoga Sparks: 108 Easy Practices for Stress Relief in a Minute or Less and Healing Yoga for Neck and Shoulder Pain, and is creator of the audio home practice CD, Healing Moves Yoga.
Carol Krucoff, E-RYT
Carol Krucoff, E-RYT, is a yoga teacher at Duke Integrative Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, where she specializes in therapeutic applications of yoga for people with health challenges and co-directs the Therapeutic Yoga for Seniors teacher training, designed to help yoga instructors work safely and effectively with older adults.An award-winning health journalist, Carol served as founding editor of the Washington Post’s Health Section and her articles have appeared in numerous national publications including the New York Times, Reader’s Digest and Yoga Journal. She is author of several books including Yoga Sparks: 108 Easy Practices for Stress Relief in a Minute or Less and Healing Yoga for Neck and Shoulder Pain, and is creator of the audio home practice CD, Healing Moves Yoga.
With her Duke cardiologist husband, Mitchell Krucoff, MD, she is co-author of Healing Moves: How to Cure, Relieve and Prevent Common Ailments with Exercise, and with Kimberly Carson, she is co-creator of the DVD, Relax into Yoga.
A graduate of Esther Myers’ Yoga Teacher Training and Nischala Devi’s Yoga of the Heart Cardiac & Cancer Teacher Training, Carol has been practicing yoga for more than 40 years and serves on the peer review board for the International Journal of Yoga Therapy. She created and taught a yoga program for seniors enrolled in a gerontology rehabilitation program at the Durham Veterans Administration Medical Center and also spent a decade studying martial arts. As a second-degree black belt in karate and Sensei, she taught martial arts for four years.
A graduate of Esther Myers’ Yoga Teacher Training and Nischala Devi’s Yoga of the Heart Cardiac & Cancer Teacher Training, Carol has been practicing yoga for more than 40 years and serves on the peer review board for the International Journal of Yoga Therapy. She created and taught a yoga program for seniors enrolled in a gerontology rehabilitation program at the Durham Veterans Administration Medical Center and also spent a decade studying martial arts. As a second-degree black belt in karate and Sensei, she taught martial arts for four years.